The statements in this section merely provide background information related to the present disclosure and may not constitute prior art.
Unlike commercial aircraft which are loaded with advanced avionics, navigation systems and flight data recorders, most light aircraft are not required to carry such equipment. Indeed, many of the most popular light aircraft used today are manufactured with relatively rudimentary panel-mounted instrument packages such as analogue altimeters, directional gyro, airspeed indicator, and artificial horizon, for example.
As such, aircraft owners and operators often augment these instruments with any number of other commercially available Attitude/Heading Reference Systems (ADAHRS) and/or secondary components such as GPS navigation systems, autopilot systems, and/or multi-function flight computers, for example. Such systems are also designed to be mounted within the aircraft instrument panel, so as to provide real-time information to the pilot during a flight.
Although these systems work well for their intended purpose, there does not currently exist a convenient and cost effective way to combine and store all of this flight data information for analysis and/or playback after the flight has concluded. Although some of the above noted systems may include connection ports for individually mating with a tablet or other such device, the primary certified instruments do not include this ability, as doing so may cause a malfunction to a critical instrument.
Accordingly, it would be beneficial to provide a flight data pod that is capable of independently capturing flight data information for later reproduction and analysis. Such a feature being particularly beneficial for flight schools in evaluating the flight performance of students and/or for general aviation organizations in determining and scheduling aircraft maintenance, without the need to access the aircraft's primary instrumentation panel.